


It's Quite Simple, Really

by ThatRavenclawBitch



Series: Love or Power [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Dark One's Dagger, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-09
Updated: 2014-10-09
Packaged: 2018-02-20 13:23:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2430383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatRavenclawBitch/pseuds/ThatRavenclawBitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle finds out about the dagger and confronts Rumple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Quite Simple, Really

**Author's Note:**

> Hypothetical dagger angst. I am not a writer for the show and therefore have no idea how this will actually play out. This is not a spoiler for the actual show. I can't believe I have to clarify that.

He knew the moment she walked in the shop that things had changed. She knew. He wasn’t sure how, and that wasn’t important right now. The only thing that mattered was his wife, his Belle, standing in the doorway and staring at him with so much hurt etched across her face that it made his knees want to buckle. The jig was up.

“Belle,” he breathed, not sure what to say and knowing he could only make this situation worse.

“How long?” she asked, her voice raw and broken. Her shoulders were tense, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Every inch of her looked like she wanted to flee, but here she was facing the monster, his brave Belle. “How long have you had it? Has it been since…?”

She couldn’t finish her sentence and he can’t blame her. Has it been since he proposed? Has it been a lie this whole time? Is their entire marriage a sham? He doesn’t want to answer, but he knows he must.

“Yes,” he said, looking down at the counter in front of him, at the priceless objects hanging around the shop, at the scuffed wooden floor, anywhere but her accusing, clear blue eyes.

Belle simply nodded, as though she had expected nothing less, and turned to leave the shop.

“Belle, wait,” he called. He didn’t know what he could say to appease her, but he knew he couldn’t leave it like this.

“What?” she demanded. “What could you possibly have to say to me now?”

“I – I’m sorry,” he stuttered out.

Belle shook her head, crossing her arms against her chest.

“That day in your dungeon, the day you kicked me out,” she began, referencing another day that rivals this one as one of the worst of his life. “I thought you were lying then. But you weren’t. That was the most honest you’ve ever been with me and I was just too naive to see it. You’ve been lying to me every day since.”

“What?” he asked, confused.

“It’s quite simple, really,” Belle quoted his words back to him. “Your power means more to you than I do.”

“That’s not true,” he said desperately, willing her to see, to understand how much he loved her, how much he needed her.

“Then prove it,” she replied. “Give it up. It’s me or the dagger, Rumplestiltskin. It’s me or your power.”

In spite of himself he felt resentment bubble up at her words. How could she expect him to give it up? It had been his only companion for three hundred years and she wanted him to just cast it aside? She wanted him to go back to that weak, lame spinner who couldn’t even protect his own family? He refused to ever be that man again. Belle blinked at him as his silence stretched on, then gave a final curt nod.

“You’ve made your choice.”

She turned to leave once more, pushing open the front door of the shop as the bell clanged angrily.

“Belle, please,” he called after her. This couldn’t be the end of them. He refused to believe it. “I love you, I swear it.”

She turned slowly, looking at him with tear filled eyes.

“I know,” she said, as the tears began to fall. “Just not enough.”

The door swung shut behind her and Rumplestiltskin’s legs gave out beneath him, as though he were that lame spinner once more. She was gone, and without her he would truly turn to dust.


End file.
